Nintendo Labo Review

This week we were invited to test drive (quite literally)the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit for the Nintendo Switch.

For those of you who have no idea what Nintendo Labo is, it is a series of cardboard construction/origami-based play sets that are used with the Nintendo Switch. You DO need a Nintendo Switch to use/play Nintendo Labo.

My children are both “outside of the box” kinda kids. This means that it is very hard for me to find toys that fulfil their play-based learning needs and that is what peaked my curiosity with Nintendo Labo. It wasn’t just a screen-based game and it wasn’t a box of origami papers either.

Previously both styles have failed to meet my children’s interest. This 3D construction Darth Vader Star wars kit nearly ended up with me flinging it from the top floor of our hotel room in a foreign country, after I spent an hour trying to find craft glue and sticky tape to keep the darn thing together (yes I am still angry about it).

After you insert the Nintendo Labo game card into the Nintendo Switch, you are ready to go. You or your child are going to be folding cardboard to create 3 dimensional objects (Toy-Con) that then become part of the gameplay. Fishing Rod for the fishing game, motorbike handles for motorbike game etc.

Mr 9-year-old decided he wanted to build the Motorbike first.

When the pieces started popping out of the pre-cut frame I began to get palpitations and flashbacks to Darth Vader. However, my 9-year-old did not require my help once. My 11-year-old, however, functions very differently. She needed to take the break (the Nintendo Switch told her to take) and she also needed help to find several pieces (which she was sitting on or had lost under the table).

My 9-year-old and I placed a bet that the 11-year-old wouldn’t actually complete a project. We both lost as she made the Piano!

When I questioned her as to what kept her going, she said the motivation to play the game at the end is what kept her focused on the end game (pun intended). So for kids who lose interest or find “sticking” with something hard, then Nintendo Labo is actually very motivating. It taps into their ability to want to play and pushes them to use their patience.

It’s like dangling a creative carrot in front of their eyes.

Now don’t think that this is a 30-minute project. TheNintendo Labo is not something to start on a school night when homework is due (lesson learnt the hard way). The Motorbike took Mr 9-year-old around 3 hours to construct. The Piano took Miss 11-year-old around 3 hours but that included her drink breaks and of course looking for the pieces which were right under her nose the whole time.

The pieces went together and stayed together easily (unlike Darth Vader of Death). Each folding step is played on the Nintendo Switch with a visual guide that can be paused, rewound or fast forwarded and that is perfect for different abilities. Miss 11 would fast forward two or three steps then complete them, whilst Mr 9 would follow each step and only then press the next button.

We had the Nintendo Labo Variety Kit and there were enough projects in there to keep the kids busy for several days. If you work it out, the Variety Kit has 1 small RC car and 4 major projects, the Piano, the House, the Fishing Rod and the Motorbike. That’s around 12 hours of construction time and endless hours of playtime. Which makes it a very affordable STEAM project for your child.

We have spent 100’s of dollars on STEM and STEAM-based adult-run activities for our children and I can say that none of them has inspired their creativity or their desire to complete a project as much as the Nintendo Labo.

But wait, I am not finished. What I love most about the Labo is how amazingly clever it is! Your child is not just creating a cardboard toy to pop the screen in. The cardboard toy is required to make the game function. For example, the Piano keys require reflective tape that the Joy-Con controller sees and responds to. The Motorbike has a cardboard throttle that pushes down on the Joy-Con controller’s button to make the Motorbike go and the Fishing Rod, well I can’t figure that one out. I pull on the line and the line on the screen reacts immediately. I will need to get my kids to explain the technology in that to me sometime.

It’s just really fun and interactive. For children who need to take it a little further, they can create their own hacks and programs using the Toy-Con Garage software included in all Nintendo Labo game cards, make modifications and decorate their Toy Con too.

We have this rule in our house where screen time needs to be earned and one of the ways to earn it is to do some creative time. My children straight away realized that by constructing Nintendo Labo Toy-Con he is earning his screentime as he goes, which he loved!

My children are even planning on pooling their pocket money to buy theNintendo Labo Robot kitbefore I need to send the loan device back (a Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit was also released recently.) Getting them to spend their money, let alone share at something is a miracle in itself.

How we hacked it!

So remember how I said you could decorate your Toy Con? Well, we decided that our new Piano was a little too modern, so we added a shabby chic collage effect to it.

We started by taking all the keys out of the keyboard and attaching the silver leaf. You can follow the instructions on your own leafing brand, but basically, we added glue, popped the foil on and brushed off the excess foil when it was dry.

You need to be mindful of the pieces on your piano that need to move and lift in and out. For that reason you can see we created a wrap around the sides and left all the top opening areas still moveable and flexible.

After you have your side bases down, then it is all about the layering. There is no such thing as too much when it comes to paper collage.

I finished it all off with a spray of gold paint to give it a glittery old feel.